Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of forestland on household income, poverty and inequality
among households in Vietnam’s poorest rural districts, the North Central Provinces, using
data from the Quantitative Socio-Economic Survey for Emission Reduction-Program (ERP)
Provinces Areas [QSESERPA]. Local people are extremely poor, with 54% living below
the poverty line. Forest income constitutes about 17% of their total income; only wage
income (37%) ranks higher. Surprisingly, those better off depend on forest income more than
the poor do. Such income is comprised mainly of non-timber forest plants (77%), followed
by timber products (18%). Our micro-econometric analysis indicates that gaining access to
more forestland would increase household per capita income and reduce the incidence and
intensity of poverty, even after controlling for all other variables in the model. In addition,
we find that forest income was the second largest contributor to overall income inequality
and had the largest marginal effect on it. A policy implication here is that increasing the
access of the poor to forest resources and improving their efficiency in forest management
could have a substantial effect on income, poverty and inequality in the study area.

Muller, D., Epprecht, M., & Sunderlin, W. D. (2006). Where are the poor and where are the trees?: targeting of poverty reduction and forest conservation in Vietnam: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Nguyen, H. T. (2009). Human ecological analysis of land and forest use by the Hmong people for harmonising with the governmental reforestation program in Vietnam. (MSc), Technischen Universität Dresden, Germany.